The transmission of data, and in particular video data, has exposed a problem on bandwidth-limited shared networks related to the fact that video data often requires a high bandwidth and has temporal constraints. Many Internet Protocol networks were designed for data transmissions requiring low bandwidth and tolerant of highly variable packet delays, which can provide relatively low-bandwidth circuits that do not satisfy inflexible temporal constraints. Such packet networks were designed for the transfer of data between computer systems. The only constraint being that the data eventually arrive at its destination. The bandwidth available for a transfer depends on the degree of congestion in the network. Such packet networks often make no guarantees about when or even in what order the data in a burst of data will arrive at its destination. A packet network may not be well adapted to handle high-bandwidth, bursty data with time constraints.
For users which do not have sufficiently high bandwidth to stream video or which must contend with other traffic that intermittently diminishes available bandwidth for delivery of packets, adaptive bit rate technologies may be used to deliver lower bit rate streams when necessary to maintain continuous viewing by sacrificing some aspects of video quality. If the user's available bandwidth suddenly drops, these adaptive bit rate technologies can make use of an adaptive bit rate stream so that the video source can dynamically lower its streaming rate to compensate for this decreased bandwidth and deliver an uninterrupted video viewing experience that has a lower bandwidth requirement. Likewise, adaptive bit rate technologies may dynamically increase streaming rates when detecting increased bandwidth is available to deliver uninterrupted video viewing with a higher video quality.